Herzog found dead in home

Wednesday

Jan 18, 2012 at 12:01 AMJan 18, 2012 at 1:17 PM

Convicted serial killer Loren Herzog apparently hanged himself in his fifth-wheel trailer Monday outside Susanville, the same day he received a call warning him that his boyhood friend, Wesley Shermantine, was actively building a case against him from Death Row.

Scott Smith

Convicted serial killer Loren Herzog apparently hanged himself in his fifth-wheel trailer Monday outside Susanville, the same day he received a call warning him that his boyhood friend, Wesley Shermantine, was actively building a case against him from Death Row.

That call came from Sacramento bounty hunter Leonard Padilla, who agreed to pay Shermantine - sentenced to death for four murders - about $30,000 for information revealing the locations of unclaimed victims.

Shermantine, 45, also sought to have Herzog, 46, returned to prison. Even as news of Herzog's death surfaced Tuesday, another of Shermantine's letters arrived at The Record's office.

Shermantine promised in the letter to lead officials to Cyndi Vanderheiden, Chevelle "Chevy" Wheeler and a covered well holding 10 or more murder victims. Yet Herzog took an escape route in death, Padilla said.

"His decision to run was the extreme decision to run," Padilla said. "He didn't want to have to deal with what Wesley has given up."

Herzog and Shermantine, hunting buddies from Linden, were arrested in 1999, ending a killing spree in San Joaquin and Calaveras counties that officials said spanned the 1980s and '90s.

A jury originally found Herzog guilty of three murders, but an appeals court tossed out much of his case. Investigators had coerced Herzog into talking, the court ruled.

State prison officials housed him in the trailer just outside the walls of High Desert State Prison in Susanville, a rural community four hours north of Stockton.

Susanville and Lassen County sued the state for foisting Herzog upon them, and a decision has yet to be delivered. That ruling is now moot.

On Monday, Herzog's GPS ankle monitor alerted his parole agent that the power was low. The agent sent a prison official to check on him, a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman said.

The official found Herzog dead just before midnight Monday hanging at his trailer in an apparent suicide. The Lassen County Sheriff-Coroner's Office pronounced him dead at 12:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Prison officials would not say whether Herzog left a suicide note. The Lassen County Sheriff's Office did not respond to a request for further information.

The death launched an investigation by the Lassen County District Attorney's Office, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the state's Office of the Inspector General, prison officials said.

Calls to Herzog's family Tuesday went unanswered. Herzog had a wife and three children.

His defense attorney, San Joaquin County Public Defender Peter Fox, also declined to comment, referring to statements he made in old news reports maintaining Herzog's innocence.

"There is no evidence he killed anyone," Fox said in a July 2010 interview with The Record. "And there never was."

Fox had said that Herzog's only crime was a poor choice in a friend - Shermantine who continues to assert that he was overpowered by Herzog and never killed anybody.

Padilla, 71, said he first reached Herzog by cell phone one month ago to tell him about a series of letters Shermantine was sending The Record. In one letter, Shermantine offered up what he called "Loren's boneyard."

Padilla said he felt obligated not to blind-side Herzog with the accumulating information. At about 2 p.m. Monday Padilla said he again dialed Herzog give him an update.

Padilla said he warned Herzog that he needed to get an attorney. Padilla said he even offered to find him one.

Padilla said in years as a bounty hunter he's learned how to treat felons.

Despite the timing of Herzog's suicide, Padilla said doesn't take any blame for pushing him over the edge. Rather, Herzog chose not to subject himself to questions about any remains uncovered with Shermantine's help, Padilla said.

"I have done what I believed was the right thing to do," Padilla said. "And Loren Herzog did what he believed was the right thing to do."

Shermantine's most recent letter to The Record was received Tuesday. In it, Shermantine said that he can easily show officials where the bodies are buried. He only needs to be transported for a day and he'll point out the spots, Shermantine said.

"I'm trying to help," Shermantine wrote. "But everyone is acting like their hands are tied."

News of Herzog's death was only part of the drama in the decades-old case that unfolded Tuesday. A team of various law enforcement agencies met to finalize a plan to bring Shermantine today to remote parts of Calaveras and San Joaquin counties.

San Joaquin County Sheriff Steve Moore said he called a halt to it because he was worried it was being done incorrectly. Moore said he learned of the plan out of the blue late Monday.

After calling several local, state and federal law enforcement agency leaders, Moore said he felt uneasy because none of his counterparts could explain the details.

He worried most about security. Shermantine, who has nothing to lose, might make a run for it and escape into territory he is familiar with. Then more people would be in danger, Moore said.

"Before I go off half cocked and put this community at risk, I'm going to ask a lot of questions," he said. "All I'm trying to do is do the right thing."

Moore said a second meeting has been scheduled for Friday. He suggested using video cameras at the burial sites and then showing those images to Shermantine to pinpoint the places to dig.

Moore said he wants closure for the families, but under the right conditions.

Susan Kane, head of Stockton's parole office who has been pushing to locate the missing bodies, said it is imperative that all of the law enforcement agencies work together.

"It's frustrating when some of those involved have other priorities," she said. "We will continue to work to bring home whoever we can to their family."